CD Print

Final Assignment: Zombie Zine

Add caption

Homage to Sophie Griotto

Kaylin Photo Shoot Stylized

Sophie Griotto is a French Illustrator who creates many fashion illustrations.  Her work can be seen at this url:

http://sophiegriotto.portfoliobox.fr/bienvenue

Sophie clearly illustrates her work, while my illustration obviously began as a photograph.  This is part of the reason that I chose Sophie, she is such a talented illustrator and my drawing skills are so meager, that she seemed a good fit for a homage assignment.

Blog 10: Type as Art

Portrait Assignment: Post 3 Classmate *Maggie*

Maggie Portrait Stylized

Maggie Portrait Original (Color Corrected)

Blog Assignment 9: Text Tutorial

Portrait Assignment: Post 2 (Self Portrait)

Blog Assignment: Portraits post 1

Before

After

Blog Assignment 8: Make three brushes

Threshold Stone for Brush

Threshold Logs for Brush

Grayscale log for Brush

My brush test

Blog Assignment 7: Scanner Collage

Scanner Collage 1

Scanner Collage 2

Scanner Collage 3

These are some of the scanned files that I created to start this project:

Photo re-touch assignment: Before and After

 This is a picture of my grandfather and my great uncle.

This is the before picture:

 



This is the after picture:

Blog Assignment 6: Typography in Composition

The challenge is to integrate font into the composition of a photo, or other art.  The final product must be visually pleasing.

 

 

 

Blog Assignment 5: The Return of Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor is the quintessential angry rock star.  The long ride with Nine Inch Nails started with "Pretty Hate Machine," the band's first studio album in 1989.  NIN has been called metal, electronic, techno, industrial and many other genre labels, but continues to defy categorization.  The latest studio album "Hesitation Marks" released in September of 2013 is the ninth studio album and the first album on a major record label since 2007.

Introduced with the single "Came Back Haunted," "Hesitation Marks" represents a return to the studio and state of the art recording technology for NIN.  "The Slip," the previous album released as a free torrent, was recorded with all live recording equipment, with amps mic'd and the band playing every song together for recording.  The new album is exquisitely refined.  From the industrial beats to more house style bass loops the album is distinctly NIN but also distinctly new.

Blog Assignment: Visual Pun

The following are examples of visual puns:

1.  Jar Head

2. Super Bowl

3.  Candy Rapper

Blog Assignment 4: The Nature of Dreams

What is the nature of dreams?

Dreams, in my world, are a subconcious response to my life experiences.  Every night I have the same two dreams:

1.   First, I dream that I am back in the Army, that my squad is getting ready to move, and I am trying to convince everyone that I am old and fat and cannot fight anymore.
2.   Second, I dream that I am in school, and I cannot find the locker with my books, and I am late for class.  I walk around and around in circles looking for the locker.

Do you believe in coincidence?

I do not believe in coincidence.  I believe that the Universe has an underlying Energy, that moves every particle in a specific pattern so that all of the particles mix and combine as they are designed to mix.  I believe that this Power follows specific patterns--some that we know and call laws of physics and such--but also patterns that are beyond our comprehension.


How is memory like a dream?

My memory is very similar to a dream, in that I only remember events, people, and places, the way my subconscious rebuilds them.  For example, I typically only remember the good traits of an old girlfriend.  I never remember the fights or the times that were bad--unless the bad times were embarassing enough to define that portion of my life.

Textures--Computer Art class: Blog Assignment number three

This is the official assignment prompt for this blog:

Lets make some art…

Take artistic photos of subjects of your choice.

Take photos of textures (close up shots of old deteriorated things, rust, paint coming off an old wall, crumpled up paper, old pages from books, texture is everywhere)

Combine the textures with the photos to add mystery to the content of the work.  The steps are simple but the results can be profound.   Add a texture layer to a photo you have taken then change the blending mode of the texture layer – Done!  Make three and upload them to your blog then write a little about where the images came from and how you made them.

All of the images used in this blog, are my images.  Each texture image was taken with a Pentax WG-II, which is marketed as a point-and-shoot adventure camera.  I have found that the WG-II sucks as an adventure camera, the waterproofing has a long history of failure--my camera has been replaced under warranty already for waterproofing problems, and the blog sites on the camera list many other customer complaints about the waterproofing.  The WG-II has proven to be an excellent super-macro camera.  The camera has a mode which is described as "Digital Microscope" in which six built -in LED lights illuminate and the camera takes superb pictures as close as one millimeter from the subject.Each of the primary subject photos were taken with a Canon 6d, Full-frame dSLR.  The 6d is the best camera I have ever owned--I actually own two of the bodies.  The camera is a great camera for all types of photography and shoots great video also.

First combination

I will post each of the original pictures and the combined image.  The first work is a combination of a super-macro picture of my blue jeans with close-up portrait of my cat.

 The combination actually makes the cat look like she has scales.  Her face looks like a snake with whiskers.

Second Combination

The second work is a combination of a super-macro picture of my Keen water shoes and a picture of Trade Street in Uptown Charlotte.

 The texture from the weave on the shoes, added to the picture of the street, gives the illusion of a hard rain pouring down on the city.

Third Combination

The third work is a picture of large metal rings.  This picture appears to be black-and-white, but it actually just has very little color.  The ring picture is used to provide texture to a photo of two musicians performing.

 The application of the rings, gives the photograph and apocalyptic feel, which is very appropriate for these musicians, because they cover mostly metal bands like Slipknot, Metallica, and Pantera.  I did not want the ring texture to obscure the faces of the musicians, so I used a layer mask to exclude the faces from the application of the texture layer containing the rings. 

Amazing things

I just overhear these words in a Hickory restaurant, during a conversation between two women: "Earnhart" and "Junior."  How odd is that?  Not at all....

Adventure of the Week: Shooting Photographs at a Wedding in Alabama

    My son and I traveled to Alabama this week, to shoot photos at a wedding in Alexander City.  Alexander City, AL is the town of my birth, but I have not been there often since leaving in 1970.  The bride in the wedding is almost related to me--she is my first cousin's half sister.  Betsy, the bride, had a very laid-back country theme to her wedding.

    The adventure began in the wee hours of Friday morning.  My son, Thomas, is sixteen and got a Volvo S60 this summer.  He is always motivated to drive--he loves his car.  We left Caldwell County at approximately 1:00 AM Friday morning and drove the seven hours to Alabama with very few stops.  My son always plans meticulously to stop at certain exits in South Carolina to buy gas, because he knows the cheapest stations -- even though he expects me to pay for the gas.  We made great time, and stopped at a Starbucks in Opelika, AL to get coffee at sunrise.
    My son and I laugh and make fun of everyone on the road.  I am also notorious for imitating the rappers that he always plays on the radio.  I have a great impression of Li'l Jon.  We had a great time driving down, talking about man-code issues and laughing at the other drivers.

    On Friday, our task was relatively easy:  shoot pictures of the rehearsal party at a venue named "The Children's Harbour" on Lake Martin.  The event was very informal so the number and variety of shots was limited, and we had exhausted the possible compositions within an hour.  We shot approximately one thousand frames, but that included many photos of an approaching thunderstorm that was creeping across the lake.


    Saturday was a LONG day.  We arrived on site at the wedding church to begin shooting the bride and bride's maids preparations as they put on their makeup and had their hair styled.  We started shooting pictures at 10:30 AM.  We took a short break, during which we drove up the country road to a big sign that read:  "Jesus is the Answer."  I took several pictures of the sign, to possibly use on a CD cover that I am designing for a music producer in Finland.  We returned to the church, and I continued shooting the bridal party while Thomas shot the groomsmen preparing.
    At about 1:00 PM on Saturday, we began the formal pictures.  The brides father sees the bride in her dress.  The groom sees the bride in her dress.  The bride and her father...The bride and the groom...The bride and groom with the wedding party...The bride and groom with the bride's maids...The bride and groom with the groomsmen...On and on and on and on and on and on..........

    Finally we were done with the formal pictures.  Thomas set up a GoPro to shoot video.  I attached a digital recorder to the sound mixing board for the venue to record all the sound through the microphones and music system.  I solicited a volunteer to shoot video with my iPad--of course I used this as an excuse to introduce myself to the cutest single girl present.  We finished our preparations and we waited.
    We shot several hundred frames of the attendees as they arrived, as well as the families.  When the actual ceremony started, Thomas and I ran around like madmen.  We shot every angle, every person, experimented with different exposures--basically we tried to shoot every possible different shot that we could take.  I made the decision earlier that we would go with natural light, because the wedding was mostly outside.  An approaching storm made the lighting a challenge.  The scene would change from bright sunlight to dark, cloudy skies in just a few seconds.  The wedding ceremony concluded with the newly wedded couple leaving on a pontoon boat.
    Thomas and I raced to the car, and hit the road.  If we were the first people to arrive at the reception, we could easily shoot pictures of everyone as they arrived, ensuring that we got all of the attendees before they drank and left at random times.  We shot the guests as they arrived, and then the bride and groom as they arrived in a 1939 Model T, Ford.  The reception with in a horse barn and was very country.  Betsy played both kinds of music:  country and western.
    Thomas and I had a great time making fun of all the guests, especially the ones that danced.  Thomas was quite amused watching me try to make conversation with the cute girl that helped with the video.  At one point I was moving closer to start small-talk with her, when some other guy came out of nowhere and jumped in front of me.  Thomas said that I looked funny trying to "play it off."  Thomas said I looked like I was doing the electric slide, shuffling away from the two of them.  He laughed at me for many hours on the drive home over my pickup skills.

    Thomas dropped me off at the Dunkin' Donuts in Gastonia, and continued to his mom's house in Charlotte.  My mom and dad stopped and picked me up as they started up 321 North towards Hickory and Caldwell County.  Once all the photos were downloaded, the final count was 6135 frames (not including the bad ones we deleted on the cameras).  I began the arduous task of post shoot processing, and separated photos that needed adjustments into appropriate categories.  The pictures are still uploading--and will be for a long while.
    I am really impressed with how Thomas has improved his photography and people skills.  I had promised Betsy that we would take these photos as her wedding present, so we were not expecting to make any money.  I was actually spending money to do the job.  Betsy's father surprised me with an envelope--he said he wanted to help with my expenses.  The amount of money in the envelope was much more than our expenses.  The family had probably checked on the cost of wedding photography and understood how much money they did not have to spend because we took the pictures.
    Our trip was mostly fun, although my poor old body was exhausted, from the travel, when I returned home.  The wedding and reception were enjoyable and I got to see my Alabama kin folk--which is a rarity.  Overall it was a good adventure.  The envelope full of money didn't hurt either.